Zulfiqur is Professor and Pro Vice Chancellor (Research and Knowledge Exchange) at the University of Cumbria.  Zulf obtained a BSc (Hons) in Applied Chemistry from the University of Greenwich followed by a PhD with Prof. Fred Alder in Instrumentation and Analytical Science from the University of Manchester. He carried out a post-doctoral fellowship  with Prof. P.N. Bartlett (FRS) at the University of Warwick on blood glucose monitoring for diabetes care prior to starting his academic career in the Department of Pharmacy at the University of Brighton. Zulf has previously held a number of senior roles at Teesside University. As Director of Academic Research and Innovation Partnerships he initiated a collaboration with TWI for development of the Healthcare Innovation Centre which generated research and knowledge exchange income of over £19 million with over £3 million to Teesside University. As Dean of the Graduate Research School, Zulf led the Teesside University REF 2014 submission as well as the initial preparations for REF 2021. 

Zulf has an interdisciplinary background with research interests that includes microfabrication, microfluidics for point-of-care diagnostic devices and for biological processing as well as related work on transducer development, particularly for electrochemical and optical sensing, and AI for sensor data. He has been the Technical Manager for the Horizon Europe HoliCare project (https://holicare-project.org/) on diagnostics for respiratory tract infections in sub-saharan Africa as well as the SusFe project on sustainable functional electronics (https://susfeproject.eu/). He is currently the PI at the University of Cumbria for the Horizon Europe EDCTP3 UTI-Diag project on diagnostics and antibiotic stewardship for urinary tract infections and the Eurkea Xecs (electronic components and systems) Multistripes project to create complex circuitry, interconnects and mass die transfer on large area/volume foils. Zulf was previously involved in the FP7 Diginova project developing a roadmap for digital fabrication and the Horizon 2020 GateOne project on smart system integration for SMEs. At the University of Cumbria, Zulf largely carries out his research through the Institute of Engineering, Computing and Advanced Manufacturing (IoECAM) as well as the Pears Cumbria School of Medicine Research Hub.

Zulf has led a number of knowledge exchange initiatives including for the process industries cluster, digital manufacturing and supporting regional businesses in the EU marketplace. He was a board director for the Centre of Excellence in Nanotechnology, Microsystems, and Photonics (CENAMPS) which was merged with the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult. Zulf has patent on Cavity Enhanced Absorption Spectrometry within microfluidic devices and was founder of a spin-out company. 

Zulfiqur is a member of the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (FLF) peer review college. He is Associate Editor for Frontiers In Lab On A Chip Technologies as well as being on the Editorial board for Micromachines and founding Editor-in-chief for Micro and Nanosystems from Bentham Science Publishers. Zulf has been co-chair of special session at the IEEE Biomedical Circuits and Systems Conference as well keynote speaker at the IEEE Medical Measurements and Applications Conference. He is on the Executive Committee for the Research and Enterprise Network for Universities (RENU).